It is important to know and understand who can be claimed as a dependent, as well as who can generate a personal exemption for your taxes. It’s not as simple as you might think, especially in complex family situations, such as when a child lives separate from one of his parents, or when there are more than two generations living in the same home.

And best of all, you only really need to know this for the 2017 tax year (at least the exemption part), since exemptions are eliminated for your 2018 tax return.